The present invention relates to an engaging member securing structure for a vehicular lamp in which a hollow member projecting from the rear surface of a lamp body employed for securing the lamp body to a vehicle body has improved mechanical strength. The invention also relates to a vehicular lamp employing such an engaging member securing structure.
Conventionally, there has been known a vehicular lamp having a frontward-opening lamp housing member assembled to a corner portion of a vehicle, and a lamp body having a surface which curves from the front of the vehicle to the side thereof and which is mounted in the lamp housing member and secured to the vehicle body at plural portions on the rear surface of the lamp body.
The conventional vehicular lamp of this type is provided, as shown in FIG. 11, with a lamp body 51 having an opening periphery on which a securing groove 52 is formed, and a front lens 54 having a peripheral portion on which a leg member 54a is formed, which leg member 54a is fitted in and adhered to the securing groove 52 of the lamp body. The assembled lamp body 51 and the front lens 54 together define a lamp chamber 55. A plurality of boss-shaped hollow projecting bodies 56 project from predetermined portions on the rear surface of the lamp body 51, and an engaging member 57 such as a stud bolt is fixed to the outer end of each of the hollow projecting members 56. The projecting end of the engaging member 57 is inserted through a packing 58 in a securing hole B formed in all inner wall of a lamp housing member A of the vehicle body, and the lamp body 51 is integrally secured to the vehicle body by means of a threaded fastener such as a nut 59 or the like.
According to the conventional securing structure as described above, in the case where the vehicular lamp is of a combination type lamp having a plurality of lamp chambers 55, 55, because the rear surface of the lamp body 51 and the inner wall of the lamp housing member A of the vehicle body are rather far from one another, a long hollow projecting member 56 must be provided. This member 56 must be molded using a mold core M as shown in FIG. 12. Further, such a member must be formed continuously with a partition wall 61, which is continuous with a reflector 60 formed on the inner surface of the lamp body 51, in order to cover the rear opening of the hollow projecting member 56 so as to prevent degradation of the external appearance of the lamp due to the opening, which would be visible through the front lens 54 were the rear opening not closed in this manner.
However, the mechanical strength of the elongated hollow projecting member 56 is low with respect to a force or an impact applied thereto from the side, and the hollow projecting member 56 can easily be bent or broken if an excessive force or impact is applied thereto when the engaging member 57 is secured during assembly. Thus, the reliability in mechanical strength of such a structure has been low.
Further, during the molding operation used to produce the hollow projecting member 56 having an elongated hollow part using the mold core M, the hollow part of the hollow projecting member 56 may abut against the mold core M when the molded product is removed from the mold core M, thus lowering the workability during the molding. In some cases, the hollow projecting member 56 or the mold core M may even be damaged or broken.